Pottering in the potting shed:

In her Pottering in the potting shed series, our garden editor Cinead McTernan, shares ideas for things to do in your plot. This month, try planting wasabi.

"OK - first of all I should be clear that growing wasabi requires a bit of patience! Just like asparagus or rhubarb where you need to wait at least until the second year to really get a bumper crop, you have to wait for at least 18 months to harvest the tuber. However, it's worth the wait - the taste of genuine wasabi is far more firey and complex than the shop-bought lurid green wasabi paste (which is actually a mix of mustard and horseradish... and colouring!). If you can't wait that long, in the first year you can pick a few of the spring flowers and make a tempura with them as well as harvesting a few leaves of the wasabi, using them to add a kick to salads or, as Suttons Seeds suggests, wrap them around smoked salmon or cream cheese. The flavour isn't as strong as the tuber but it's sill delicious.

To grow...
Perfect for our climate, wasabi is most happy in overcast, damp chilly weather so make sure you can find it a shady spot. I planted a tuber in a container this time last year and overwintered it in a sheltered corner of the garden under a table - it's looking incredibly healthy already with a glossy clump of heart-shaped leaves showing all the promise of a big, juicy tuber that I'll harvest at the end of the growing season.

You can buy plants from The Wasabi Company or Suttons Seeds. Plant the tuber in a 9cm pot and when it's had chance to get established, about 6 weeks later, plant out in a larger container (I went for a 40cmx40cm) or in a shady spot in the border or by the edge of a pond with other marginal plants and keep well-watered. Given its preferred growing site, I was vigilant about slugs and snails - they seemed to get a taste for it and the only answer was a night-time visit to pick them off! 

Once it comes to harvesting, pull out the entire plant and remove the leaves from the rhizome. Give it a wash and you can then keep it, wrapped in damp tissue in the fridge until you're ready to use it."

Words: Cinead McTernan

More from Cinead's Pottering in the potting shed series

Pottering in the potting shed: Keep plants toasty and warm this winter

In her Pottering in the potting shed series, our garden editor Cinead McTernan, shares ideas for things to do in your plot. This month, keep plants warm from the winter frost.

"Most of us saw a snowflake or two earlier this month, and if not, there was definitely a chill in the air as a cold band swept the country. Freezing temperatures make us reach for an extra pair of socks to keep us warm and the same thoughts can apply to outdoor plants too.  Even plants that are languishing in the relative protection of a greenhouse. While a layer of horticultural fleece will work wonders for any tender plants in beds and borders, you’ll need to add a bit of warmth to a greenhouse or potting shed too, to ensure that any seedlings you have started off or tender plants you’re overwintering will make it through extremely cold weather. Introducing a bit of heat before another frost will be enough to ward off any damage. 

"There are great products on offer in a range of styles to suit all budgets. If you’re lucky enough to have electricity in your greenhouse or potting shed, the skies really the limit! Mains powered eco and fan heaters can cope with a large-sized greenhouse (from 8x8m) and can be controlled by a thermostat, which helps maintain the right temperature. Expect to pay from £75 to £200 depending on your requirements. Alternatively, you can use gas or paraffin heaters, which are cheaper to buy with prices starting from £20, are economical to run and ideal for smaller spaces (under 6x8m)."

"I’ve got a Mini Greenhouse Paraffin heater which is more than enough for my 6x6m potting shed. Four litres of paraffin will set you back about £7 to £8 and will keep burning for 7 days. Helpfully, you can adjust the flame to help regulate the temperature. For the first time this year I can embrace the beauty of a frost-covered garden rather than worry about my overwintering herbs, perennials and early-sown seeds!"

Words: Cinead McTernan

More from Cinead's Pottering in the potting shed series

Pottering in the potting shed: Leaf mould compost

In a new series, our garden editor Cinead McTernan, shares ideas for things to do in your plot. This month, make your own compost using leaf mould.

“As a child I loved autumn. As soon as the leaves started falling, friends and I would pile them up in our school playground to make jumps so that we could spend every lunchtime galloping around and around jumping over them as if we were horses. Oh happy days!

“As a grown up I’m just as excitable about the start of autumn and I still gather leaves in to piles. The only difference is that I now scoop them up and keep them in bin liners for a few years so they can slowly decompose and transform into the most wonderful, crumbly, nutrient-rich compost, called leaf mould. If you’ve got space to store a few bin liners (out of the way behind the potting shed is always good) then it’s well worth giving this a try. If you don’t have enough leaves in your own garden to fill a bin liner or two, nip out to the park or your local woods where you’ll have plenty of material to gather.

“Oak, beech and hornbeam are the ultimate leaves for this bit of garden alchemy – they break down easily and make a very good leaf mould. Sycamore, walnut, horse and sweet chestnut leaves are actually thicker, which means it’s a good idea to shred them before storing them (you can use a rotary lawn mower to do this – just scatter them on the lawn and go over them a few times). It’s best to avoid evergreens and confer needles, as they take much longer to break down and if you’re going to recycle your christmas tree in this way, keep the pine needles separate and use for plants that like an acidic compost, like blueberries, camellias and rhododendrons.

“If the leaves are very dry when you gather them up, sprinkle some water in the bin liner to help them start them to decompose. Tie the bag in a knot and pierce with a fork a few times to create some air holes. You will have to be patient, as the process takes a couple of years, but start now and do it each year and you’ll have a great supply of good quality leaf mould to use as a seed-sowing compost in the spring. If you can’t wait that long or have enough space to store several bags, you can use year-old leaf mould, that hasn’t rotted down so well, as a mulch and soil improver.”

Pottering in the potting shed: Spring harvest sowing

Sow seed now to enjoy an early spring harvest! In a new series, our garden editor Cinead McTernan, shares ideas for things to do in your plot.

“This time last year I was busy planning the transformation of our small, urban backyard plot into an edible paradise. Though there was plenty of hard graft to be done outside - we had to take down a dilapidated shed, dig up shrubs from the two narrow borders and lift the lawn - I didn’t want to miss the chance of having veg ready to plant out in early spring and produce early crops. Autumn is a great time to sow some types of vegetables that can cope over the cold, winter months and are ready to put on a growth spurt once the warmer weather arrives in spring.”

“Seed catalogues are the best place to start if you’re looking for inspiration or need a guiding hand about what can be sown and grown in each month. I’m well aware that while lots of friends fold down corners of pages in clothes catalogues, promising themselves they’ll go back and hone down the order to one or two choice items, I do this with pages showing fruit and vegetables. It’s not that I couldn't do with a nice chunky knitted jumper and a new pair of jeans, but I just get more excited about an ‘Earth Chestnut’ from Thomas Etty that produces delicious edible roots that taste like sweet chestnuts, seeds that can be used a substitute for cumin and leaves that taste much like parsley, or ’Egyptian Walking Onions’ from Otter Farm, that quite literally take a stroll through your plot over the growing season!”

“Broad beans are an excellent crop to sow now, either outdoors in the plot, or, as I did, indoors in pots. Try varieties like ‘Aquadulce Claudia’and ‘De Monica’ which cope well with an autumn sowing. Sow one seed per 9cm pot filled with peat-free multi-purpose compost. I use Carbon Gold’s GroChar seed compost, which is a fantastic growing medium and kind to the environment. Don’t let the compost dry out and keep somewhere that’s cool but frost-free. I don’t have any windowsills and didn’t have a greenhouse, so had to claim a bit of space in our kitchen. It wasn’t ideal - as my husband and son kept telling me - and also meant I was fairly restricted with what I could sow. I managed to do a few sweet peas and a couple of pots of garlic cloves, but there were lots of other varieties I’d loved to have tried.”

“This year is another story: I have a gorgeous potting shed and it’s made all the difference. It will provide a great environment to get seeds off to an early start so they can produce a crop as early as May. If you have windowsills, a patient husband and children, or a greenhouse or potting shed, here’s my list of seeds you can sow now. I look forward to swapping notes in the spring!"

Garlic

Plant individual cloves in 9cm pots or a modular tray, with the tip just below the surface of the soil. Place in a cool, dry spot and don’t let them dry out over the winter. Plant out in spring, about 10cm apart and keep well watered. Hard-neck types are thought to have stronger flavour but only stores until mid-winter whereas soft-neck types can be kept in the ground until mid-winter (if autumn planted) and produces, smaller tightly packed cloves.

Par cel

New to me this year, I loved the sound of it being a combination of parsley and celery. It’s a winter hardy perennial, which according to Sarah Raven can be sown undercover until September. Given our warm weather, I think it can still be sown over the next week or so! They need light and a frost-free spot. plant out in spring.

Wild rocket

I haven’t had much luck direct-sowing it this summer, so i thought I’d give it a go in a seed tray. A great leaf to sow and grow all year round, it’s going to feature in  autumn suppers I hope – with chilli on spaghetti or as a pesto with gnocchi – yum! It needs a sunny spot and shouldn’t dry out.

Pea shoots

Another all year round crop, which I grew outside in the raised beds this summer. Delicious and so fragrant when you pick the tips. Like the rocket, another great way to get some fresh, lively greens into home cooked autumn and winter dishes. In theory ready to eat in 3 weeks – will be interesting to see if this is in summer, or a mild autumn too.